Area council trains FCT youths

The Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has boasted that, of the six area councils in the FCT, AMAC has done more in empowering its people.

This information was provided by the chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) Hon. Micah Jiba during an interview.

He stated that the area council which recently trained about 120 youths on how to produce recharge cards and purchased the machines for them before sending them away, also pays about

400 youths the sum of N10,000 for the SURE-P programme. To take care of the aspect of sanitation and some of the youths are also being trained as tailors.

Hon. Jiba explained that the people would love to improve on agriculture and produce more but cannot always afford to purchase the fertiliser, pesticides, grains etc needed so the area council provides it for them, which enables them produce more.

He said that one of the farmers recently suggested that the other area councils should emulate the Abuja Municipal Area Council, which is trying to turn the people into commercial farmers and not just for them to keep producing for their consumption alone.

Jiba insisted that his administration is moved by the motto: “jirgin talakawa” meaning train for the masses because he tries to take all the people along in whatever he does.

When asked how he felt on the senate’s rejection of the bill on local government autonomy especially since the area councils in the FCT already posses an autonomy and collects its money without any form of deduction, he said.

“It is only an envious person that appreciates enjoying alone, it is when people do not understand, that they will want things to happen to them alone and not want others to also benefit.

“It should be collective,” he explained. ”we are not happy, we the area council chairman here in the FCT that we get our allocations directly from the source and other local governments in the country are unable to.

“We want everything to be in uniform; the issue of rejecting the bill should not come into play because even the president himself comes from a village and so does everyone else. If they say that their are three tiers of government, is the local government not part of it? They need to start from the local government, to states and then

the national level.”

Hon. Jiba also said that, “Most of the challenges that the country faces is not at the state or national level but in the villages and communities where people are looking for water to drink and our job is to help alleviate their poverty. So the national assembly needs to review the issue of the local government autonomy.”

In the aspect of the health insurance scheme that was introduced by the FCT administration to all the communities in the FCT, Hon. Jiba says that, it has successfully reached areas in yanga and kwusayi where people have been suffering from malaria.